In the field of engineering, for example in automotive engineering, it is often necessary to connect electrical conductors to one another. For example, cables need to be connected to one another or attached to electrical devices. Plug-in connectors, in which one or more contact chambers are provided in a plug-in connector housing, are often used for this. A contact element connected to an electrical conductor is disposed in each of the contact chambers and immobilized therein. The contact element is embodied to create an electrically conductive connection to a correspondingly configured mating contact element of a mating plug-in connector, or a socket, as soon as the plug-in connector is plug-fitted together with the mating plug-in connector or socket.
In the context of the manufacture of such plug-in connectors, the contact elements onto whose rear end the pertinent cables are crimped are slid into the individual contact chambers. In order to prevent the contact elements from sliding out of the contact chambers, for example in the event of a pull on the cable, the contact elements are usually immobilized in positively engaged fashion in the contact chambers. In one configuration of the contact elements which is often used, an inwardly deflectable latching element that projects outward, or a latching tip, is provided for this purpose on the housing of the contact element. This latching element projects obliquely outward, oppositely to an insertion direction of the contact element into the contact chamber, beyond the housing of the contact element. Upon sliding of the contact element into the contact chamber, the latching element firstly is elastically deformed inward and then, upon reaching its destination position, is able to snap into a recess (a latching chamber) in the contact chamber in order thereby to immobilize the contact element in the contact chamber.
German Patent Application No. DE 10 2009 054 705 A1 describes a conventional electrical contact element, equipped with a projecting latching element, for plug-in connections.